[Solved] USB mouse stops responding

[sammo]

Hi all,

I am tremendously impressed with linux/ubuntu and Mint in particular - really takes user friendliness to the next level.

I have successfully installed Linux Mint 8 on my desktop, eeepc 701, and yesterday on my Dad's PC at home.

I had no problems with anything on my desktop PC or my eeepc 701 (after re-installing adobe flash using software manager, but that's a different story).

I was hugely disappointed when, after successfully installing Mint 8 on my Dad's PC (Dell E521 or similar), the mouse started freezing a couple of minutes after boot up. The keyboard continued to function (most of the time - sometimes even it would freeze as well, with the rest of the PC).

My Dad had been using windows XP up to this point without any mouse or keyboard problems (but a lot of spyware and virus problems, hence my decision to upgrade to linux)

At first, I thought it was logitech wireless device - some compatibility problem with linux, but when I tried 2 wired usb mice (and a wired keyboard too), I was very dissappointed and frustrated when the problem persisted.

It's like buying a new car and not being able to use it (because the engine stalls 2 mins after starting it).

I have seen some posts about these issues from years ago, people recommending different things - bios updates, using "noapic" and "irqpoll" in menu.lst (or grub.cfg), etc.

I didn't update the bios, but I did the command line options, and they didn't work.

I am surprised (did I mention being very disappointed?) that such basic - fundamental - problems with linux continue to exist (Windows XP came out in 2001 and I have never seen such problems with it).

Another surprising problem is the inability of linux to automatically detect monitor settings when using a HDMI cable instead of the standard VGA cable. I managed to manually get around this, but again, (come on guys!), Windows XP manages this without any problems.

Any help on the mouse issue anyone can offer will be greatly appreciated - it hurts to be so close to being able to use such a top notch O/S like Mint and yet so far...

Sammo

[remoulder]

Instructions for updating the BIOS at http://linux.dell.com/wiki/index.php/Te ... BiosUpdate

There's also a post on ubuntuforums that says using an external powered hub fixes the problem, see http://www.uluga.ubuntuforums.org/showt ... ?p=8267830

[sammo]

thank you very much, remoulder! I shall try it and post the result.

Apologies for my tone in the original message - it was a frustrating experience...

Cheers!
Sammo

[sammo]

It worked!

Thanks very much.

Only thing is, the CD-ROM is behaving erratically now... it won't eject sometimes for example. Unfortunately, this was enough to put my Dad off using Linux Mint